Music

Ryan Leslie Becomes ‘Black Mozart’ After Million Dollar Ruling

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After being ordered to pay the million dollar reward to the man who found his lost computer, Ryan Leslie says he is moving on with music as usual.

The singer, who claims he shouldn’t have to pay because he was unable to retrieve the music from the computer’s hard drive, decided to start anew with another album called Black Mozart. The new music was inspired by the lost and found drama.

“Black Mozart starts at the moment that I walk out of the courthouse,” he told VIBE. “I wrote the entire album in the two days following the verdict, so the album is written and will be recorded in layers with the strings, horns and potentially a choir in the royal conservatory in Vienna, Austria, one of the homes of some of the most classical music ever written.”

The Next Selection singer revealed that he will be working with two producers for the album.

“I’m very excited about what he’s been bringing to the table musically, so I’ll be bringing Cardiak [of “Diced Pineapples” fame] with me to Vienna. Then I’ll also be collaborating with another producer from the United Kingdom named Cadenza.”

When wonderkind producer/Singer Ryan Leslie lost his laptop in Germany back in 2010, he posted a reward of $20,000 that he later increased to $1 million. The singer was distraught over several unreleased tracks he was sure would be turned into hits.

But when Armin Augstein, a 54-year-old auto repair shop owner, returned the computer, he didn’t receive what was promised. Augstein said he found the computer while walking his dog and turned it over to German cops in November 2010, according to the New York Post.